Wings Postgame: Larkin Sparkin a victory

The Red Wings travelled down to Florida for game three of their four-game road trip. Facing a tough divisional opponent in the Panthers, the Red Wings obviously saw this as a must-win game this late in the year.

Falling behind by as much as 3-1, Detroit ended up firing four straight into the Panther net and came out victorious with a 5-3 victory.

Without alluding to too much, these are the kind of games teams that end up playing more games than other teams in their season end up winning. In any case, they picked up a crucial two points in the stretch run of their season.

With the win, the Red Wings kept going forward in accomplishing their goal of playing more games after the 82 game-regular season for more years than any other team in a row. (If you must know how they’re doing in that department, more details on that here.)

The Rundown

The first 39 minutes or so of this game didn’t look fantastic for the Red Wings on the scoresheet, but it’s a good thing for them that they play at least 60 minutes in most NHL games.

The ugliest of the three goals came after a pair of failed zone exits from the Red Wings.

Teddy Purcell’s bank shot from behind the net to put Florida up 3-1 made it feel like it could be one of those nights, until Pavel Datsyuk put Detroit within striking distance with 11 seconds left in the second period.

Deciding to basically win the game by himself, Larkin came back just under 5 minutes later with another shot towards the net that would end up in giving the visiting Wings the lead after a Luke Glendening tipped shot.

Pavel Datsyuk iced the game with an empty-net goal with 37 seconds left in the game.

The stats

I’m not one much to buy into momentum theories about why teams win games, but that uptick of shot attempts at the end of the second period for the Wings really coincided with their two game-tying goals. Shoot the puck, good things happen. Win games.

Motor City MVP

Dylan Larkin. Who else, really? A third-period goal and an assist from the youngin’ turned the game around in a matter of moments. His great season continued in a big way tonight.